Fresh images have emerged showing a second campsite where Tom Phillips’ children were living.
Police have released images of the family’s sleeping and cooking facilities - in an area about 200 metres away from the first site where the younger children were found on Monday.
The new photos show a large bivouac built on a hillside and trenches built out for sleeping.
Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders said of the new site, “It’s a very grim, dimly-lit area, surrounded by dense bush. The tent was well covered and dry.”
“We are currently looking at a number of items at the site. Aside from the burglaries we are now able to link to Tom, it is apparent that he had outside help.”
A makeshift kitchen with a propane camping stove and gas canister sits below a bench made out of a large black carry case.
The case is home to around seven bottles of iced coffee and a Jack Daniels box. A silver mug sits beside the box.
Other images show building materials like a roll of chicken wire.
Several buckets, including the Mitre 10 buckets Phillips was often seen with, sheets of metal, jars holding screws and nails and plastic bottles are also scattered around.
A black tarp is being held up with branches as poles, tied together with rope. Some of the chicken wire is also being used as roofing.
Other items included in the pictures are a pair of adult-sized gumboots and a dome tent.
The roof of the campsite blends well with the ground, with thick ferns and trees covering it from all sides, making it difficult to find from the skies.
Saunders said police understand the site has been the main campsite of Phillips and his children in recent months.
He said the area is difficult to access and well-hidden, which highlights the challenging environment the family used as their base.
The first site, which police released images of on Tuesday, was stocked with firearms, multiple wheels, a jerry can, multiple Sprite cans and large glass bottles.
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said this morning the first site found on Monday was “probably one of many” that Phillips would have used in the bush.
The images released yesterday showed a small portion of the campsite within the dense bushland.
“We believe they have been moving around. The terrain in this area is challenging. They’ve been on the move and they were deep in the bush, about two kilometres away from where the shooting occurred yesterday morning,” Chambers said.
He could not say whether police had previously searched the exact location where the campsite was found. He said it is likely they had canvassed that area before.
“Over the past four years, we have covered this terrain, this region a lot.
“It’s highly likely that we’ve been very, very close.”
The area where the children were found would have made it “very easy to hide”, a local business and property owner told the Herald earlier this week.
“It’s incredibly dense, dense bush. It’s all limestone country, and so there are very few open streams. It’s all kind of really broken terrain, so very, very easy to hide.”
Tom Phillips died following a shootout with police after they were called to reports of a burglary at the Piopio PGG Wrightson store in the early hours of Monday.
Phillips shot a police officer multiple times. He remains in hospital.
Phillips was with his eldest daughter at the time. She helped lead police to her two younger siblings and told them what to say to gain their trust.
They were found in a remote campsite, 2km away from where their father was shot.
The Phillips family first came to national attention when they disappeared in September 2021.
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